Google One Adds Additional Phone Backup Features

Google One, the somewhat confusing paid storage service from Google, added a phone backup feature this week. Going forward, you can tell Google One to automatically backup a number of items on your phone, with restore abilities available.

With Google One backups, you not only get to backup your device data (this is actually a part of the Android backup service), you’ll also get to automatically backup multimedia messages and original Google Photos.

The multimedia stuff is a backup of your photos, videos, and audio files from MMS messages you might receive through Android Messages. RCS could be a part of that as well, but it depends on your phone, carrier, and the messaging app you use.

As for Google Photos, you are already backing up for free to Google Photos, I’d imagine. With Google One backups, you are uploading the original quality files too.

To get started, you’ll open the Google One app where you should see a “Device Backup” section on the main “Home” page. If you want to control some of the items that are backed up, you’ll find more in Settings>Manage backup settings.